The peppered maskray (''Neotrygon picta'') or speckled maskray, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of stingray in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Dasyatidae, found in shallow waters off northeastern Australia. This small, thin-bodied ray attains a maximum width of . It has a diamond-shaped

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

disc with a row of tiny thorns along the midline, and a relatively short, whip-like tail with both upper and lower fin folds. Its upper surface has a speckled color pattern consisting of black spots and brownish reticulations on a light yellow to brown background. Favoring soft-bottomed habitats, the peppered maskray is a bottom-dwelling

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

consuming mainly

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s (particularly

caridean shrimp The Caridea, commonly known as caridean shrimp or true shrimp, are an infraorder of shrimp within the order Decapoda. This infraorder contains all species of true shrimp. They are found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Many ...

) and

polychaete worm Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made ...

s. It is

viviparous Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the ...

, with litter sizes of one to three. The females supply their developing young with

histotroph Uterine glands or endometrial glands are tubular glands, lined by ciliated columnar epithelium, found in the functional layer of the endometrium that lines the uterus. Their appearance varies during the menstrual cycle. During the proliferative ph ...

("uterine milk") during gestation. Although the peppered maskray is a frequent bycatch of

bottom trawl Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is tow ...

fisheries, it is still common and significant portions of its population appear to lie within unfished waters. As a result, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

(IUCN) has assessed it as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Once thought to be a

color morph In biology, polymorphism is the occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms, also referred to as alternative ''phenotypes'', in the population of a species. To be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the s ...

of the painted maskray (''N. leylandi''), the peppered maskray was recognized as a distinct species based on molecular data collected for the

Barcode of Life The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...

project. It was described by Peter Last and William White in a 2008

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

(CSIRO) publication. Their account was based on 13 specimens; of these, a female across caught off Rockhampton,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

was designated as the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

. The specific epithet ''picta'' is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''pictus'' ("painted" or "colored").

Phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

analysis using mitochondrial and

nuclear DNA Nuclear DNA (nDNA), or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid, is the DNA contained within each cell nucleus of a eukaryotic organism. It encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest. I ...

has found that the peppered and painted maskrays are

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

. The two are estimated to have diverged ''c.'' 10 Ma, during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Description

The peppered maskray has a thin, diamond-shaped

disc roughly 1.2 times wider than long, with slightly concave leading margins and narrowly rounded outer corners. The snout forms an obtuse angle and has a pointed tip. The small, closely spaced eyes are followed by crescent-shaped spiracles. The nostrils are elongated and have a skirt-shaped curtain of skin between them; the posterior margin of the curtain is fringed and forms two lobes. The small mouth is surrounded by papillae and bears prominent furrows at the corners. There are two papillae on the floor of the mouth. The teeth number 33–38 rows in the upper jaw and 31–40 rows in the lower; the teeth are small and vary from pointed to blunt. The five pairs of

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In con ...

s are S-shaped. The pelvic fins are medium-sized and triangular with angular corners. The whip-like tail measures 1.0–1.3 times as long as the disc and bears slender stinging spines on the upper surface; smaller rays usually have one sting, larger rays two. The tail is moderately broad and flattened at the base, becoming very thin behind the sting. Both upper and lower fin folds are present past the sting, with the upper fold shorter than the lower. There are up to 22 small, closely spaced thorns along the midline of the back behind the spiracles; otherwise, the skin is mostly smooth. This species is light yellow to brown above, with a darker reticulated pattern that may vary from faint to obvious, all overlaid by numerous black spots. Like other ''Neotrygon'' species, there is a dark marking across the eyes that resembles a mask. The tail has a pattern of saddles or bands behind the sting; the tip is white and the ventral fin fold darkens to almost black posteriorly. The underside is plain white. This species reaches across.

Distribution and habitat

The range of the peppered maskray extends along the coast of northeastern Australia, from at least the

Wessel Islands The Wessel Islands is a group of uninhabited islands in the Northern Territory of Australia. They extend in a more or less straight line from Buckingham Bay and the Napier Peninsula of Arnhem Land, and Elcho Island, to the northeast. Marchinbar ...

off

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

Hervey Bay Hervey Bay () is a city on the coast of the Fraser Coast Region of Queensland, Australia. The city is situated approximately or 3½ hours' highway drive north of the state capital, Brisbane. It is located on the bay of the same name open to ...

in Queensland; the western boundary of its range is uncertain. It may also be found off

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, though this is unconfirmed. This species is extremely common in some areas, such as the Gulf of Carpentaria. A

benthic fish Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They o ...

, it is usually found on the inner continental shelf in water less than deep, but may occur down to . It favors

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s with sandy or other fine substrate.

Biology and ecology

The peppered maskray prefers to pick prey from the surface of the substrate, as opposed to digging for them.

Caridean shrimp The Caridea, commonly known as caridean shrimp or true shrimp, are an infraorder of shrimp within the order Decapoda. This infraorder contains all species of true shrimp. They are found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Many ...

are by far the most important food source. It also consumes

s and amphipods, and rarely penaeid prawns, molluscs, and small bony fishes. Compared to smaller rays, larger rays have a more varied diet that incorporates a greater proportion of polychaete worms. Reproduction in the peppered maskray is

; like other stingrays, the developing embryos are initially nourished by

yolk Among animals which produce eggs, the yolk (; also known as the vitellus) is the nutrient-bearing portion of the egg whose primary function is to supply food for the development of the embryo. Some types of egg contain no yolk, for example ...

and later by

("uterine milk") provided by the mother. Mature females have a single functional ovary and

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The ...

, on the left side. Females give birth to litters of one to three pups, probably once per year. The newborns are across. Males and females reach

sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definit ...

at around across respectively. The maximum lifespan is at least 11 years for males and 18 years for females.

Human interactions

The peppered maskray lacks economic value and is discarded by fisheries. It is often caught incidentally in

s, and due to its small size does not benefit from Turtle Exclusion Devices. In particular, this species accounts for approximately 4.5% of the total catch of the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Over half of the rays caught by the NPF, including almost all the males, are fatally crushed within the trawl. Despite this mortality, the NPF is not believed to have negatively affected the local population because its operational area does not include the waters where this species is most abundant. The peppered maskray is also caught frequently in scallop trawls operated by the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery. Elsewhere in its range, fishing pressure is relatively light due to external factors such as fuel prices. The

(IUCN) has listed this species under

, because it remains common and its range includes several

Marine Protected Area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conse ...

References

{{Good article peppered maskray Taxa named by Peter R. Last Taxa named by William Toby White peppered maskray